Rose-Tinted Glasses
by King KP
Summary: Denial isn't just a river in Egypt, but what else can you do when you see the world through rose-tinted glasses?


I wrote this ficlet because "Follow my Footprints" is a bastard. Ivy and Zack had almost no reaction to Carmen's death! That seemed totally out of character, so I tried to make it a little more convincing. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: If I owned Carmen Sandiego, or any affiliated character, the show would suck a lot more. It belongs to some awesome genius who I don't know the name of, but I'm a hundred percent certain it's not King KP.

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"She's not gone. She's not."

Zack's voice was eerily calm. While he usually was much mellower than his older sister, he did not speak with the voice of someone who was confident and collected. His voice was hollow and distant, sounding even tinier in the gigantic, almost empty room that was the ACME San Francisco headquarters.

"Zack, buddy… it's not like last time. They…they found her body. Cause of death is unknown, but we'll know soon." Chief attempted to sound comforting, but his voice was just as dead.

"It's not real. It's another one of her tricks. It has to be, Chief! Carmen Sandiego _doesn't die_!" The young detective dropped his façade and allowed his restrained tears to flow down his cheeks.

"She was _human_," Ivy spat. "She was human and she could die, just like the rest of us. It was her fault for thinking that she could cheat death over and over like some sort of… some sort of…" The angry detective struggled to find a word to describe the elusive woman, fidgeting uncomfortably in her seat. Finally, she realized her cause was hopeless, and decided to stand up and punt her chair across the room instead. It fell to pieces the instant it hit the wall, the resulting _crack_ echoing through the otherwise silent room. If the best detective agency in the world couldn't capture Carmen Sandiego, what chance did a single word have?

"How?" Zack's voice returned, filled with subtle hysteria, "How could someone like Carmen die _quietly_? There has to be a bang. Where's her climactic last goodbye? Where's her last smirk? Her last taunt? She must've left a clue, Chief! _There has to be one!_"

The teen looked to his holographic friend for an answer, but it was obvious the Chief hadn't caught a word.

"I'm sorry you two, but I just can't be here. I need…I need to go." Chief mumbled as his screen went dark.

Zack slumped back in his seat, before reaching down into his backpack and pulling out the very last clue he had received. A Carmen figure that spoke a clue when her hat was tipped. With a quick movement, Zack pushed the plastic brim down, and Carmen's teasing voice floated from the speakers.

"Newton was a genius, but he's definitely not my figure. Find someone to redeem me and meet me in his mother's home. Ciao!"

Zack felt his eyes well with tears once again. His head swam with memories of the hundreds of other clues they'd received in all their years chasing Carmen. He began to regret leaving them behind. _We never thought that one day her clues would be all we have left. _

Zack pushed down the crimson brim once again, but the replica was ripped from his hands midsentence.

"What-"

"Just move on, Zachary." Ivy growled before storming towards the trash.

"Ivy, stop!" Zack leapt up, and with strength he didn't know he possessed, managed to wrestle the Carmen figure away from his irate sister. Ivy huffed and decided it wasn't worth the effort.

"I'm…going out to eat. I'll be back later." She mumbled offhandedly, but Zack caught the waver in her voice and the shininess of her emerald-green eyes. He let her go, despite the fact that they'd already eaten a few hours ago. He wanted to be alone as much as she did.

He reached towards the brim again, before realizing that hearing her voice wasn't helping him at all. The computer screen caught his eye.

_Maybe I can get some closure…_

He waited impatiently for the screen to turn on, continuing to fiddle with Carmen's brim, but never pushing it all the way down. The moment he saw ACME's home screen, his fingers raced against the keyboard to bring up Carmen's file. The familiar screen depicted the evasive thief wearing her typical smirk.

_Just as things should be…_ Zack shook the thought out of his mind, remembering what he wanted to do.

_Carmen Sandiego swims with giant squid._

A steady hand grabs the mouse…

_Carmen Sandiego makes jumping off buildings look like a sport. _

…The cursor makes its way to "Close Case"…

_Carmen Sandiego steers her boats through whirlpools. _

…A finger hovers over the fate sealing button…

_Carmen Sandiego runs out of an exploded jet plane, unscathed. _

…And firmly hits "Shut Down".

_Carmen Sandiego__** escapes.**_

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I hope this is good enough for a first attempt at writing a Carmen fic; leave a review and tell me if I did an okay job at keeping them in character. And bonus points if you can solve Carmen's final clue!


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